Improvements of PV receiver in laser wireless power transmission by non-imaging optics

Abstract

Laser Wireless Power Transmission (LWPT) systems have an extensive prospect in the field of wireless energy transmissions such as the space control on-orbit, spacecraft sensor networks, satellites to satellite communication and power transmission, ground to ground, ground to air, ground to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), etc. Previously, Concentrated Photovoltaics(CPV) has been used in solar energy as a solution to lower the size of the photovoltaics and yet increase efficiency. As is known laser beam spot normally presents a Gaussian distribution and laser somehow must match the size of the PV cell or array, that is how lens and concentrators are important to reshape and guide the laser beam towards the photovoltaics and in case of misalignment. The current research aims at improve the output performance of LWPT receiver by typical non-imaging optical device-Cross Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CCPC), which helps to improve the transmission of laser beam from different incident directions. Multi-field characteristics of the CPV module under laser power would be solved based on parameters from non-linear regression and experimental study. The multi-field performances of CPV module and single solar cell as the LWPT receivers have been compared. We have found that transmission distance d, divergence half-angle β, rotation angle θ and misalignment distance dmis are most important parameters for multi-field performances and LWPT conversion. The current research provides important references for LWPT system design and optimizations.